Canberra apartment approvals at eight-year low: ABS

There were only nine multi-unit dwellings approved in the territory over the month, which is the lowest number since January 2012 and was down from 810 apartment approvals in April.

Canberra was not alone in apartment approval falls, the ABS building approvals release on Wednesday showed nationally approvals for multi-units fell to an 11-year low.

A fall in apartment approvals was forecast before the pandemic, ABS director of construction statistics Daniel Rossi said.

"While minor effects of COVID-19 are apparent in the headline building approvals results, the fall in apartment approvals was broadly expected prior to the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Master Builders Association ACT chief executive Michael Hopkins said the decline would impact both construction jobs and ACT government revenue.

"These statistics will be sobering reading for the close to 20,000 people working in the ACT construction industry as many are looking for more support from the ACT government to provide a forward pipeline of work to secure their continued employment," he said.

"Around 50 per cent of the territory's taxes and charges come from the property and construction industry, so a decline in unit and apartment approvals means less jobs for Canberra's construction sector and less revenue for the ACT government."

When asked about the low number of approvals in May, an ACT government spokeswoman said building approvals were issued by independent certifiers. She said it would be inappropriate to speculate on the number of approvals issued.

COVID-19 had not had a significant impact on development approvals, the spokeswoman said. There are currently 177 applications under consideration by the planning authority.

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The Housing Industry Association has previously forecast the construction of new apartments in Canberra will tumble by almost 60 per cent.

It predicted construction work would start on about 1870 units in the 2020-21 financial year, which would be the lowest level in at least a decade.

The ABS release came after the ACT Opposition Leader Alistair Coe criticised the territory government for releasing too many multi-unit sites and not enough single residential blocks.

Figures showed in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 financial years less than one in five dwellings released by the ACT government were for single blocks.